Media Statements

Catholic University and the Catholic Project sponsored a series of podcasts entitled Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church to address the scandal of sexual violence in their Church. The stated purpose of the series was to bring “light and understanding” to the issue and to end the silence about sexual abuse.

The Archbishop of San Francisco recently performed an exorcism at an historic California mission where a statue representing Saint Junipero Serra was toppled during a protest in support of indigenous people.

A prominent religious school in Chicago has been the subject of an open letter and petition, signed by more than 1,700 people, demanding a change in how staff at the school handle allegations of sexual abuse. We applaud these brave survivors and advocates for speaking truth to power and stand in support of them as they work to create a safer environment, one that is free of abuse and cover-up.

The Diocese of Richmond have announced they have closed their compensation program. We hope that the survivors who participated found some measure of healing in the process and call on Richmond Catholic officials to come clean with the public about the true scope of clergy abuse in their diocese.

The Kansas City Catholic diocese admits another credible report of abuse by a notorious, serial, now-defrocked predator priest, Thomas M. Reardon. Now, Bishop James Johnston should break with his long-standing pattern of ‘bare minimum behavior’ and act like a real shepherd by essentially doing ‘contact tracing’ and vigorously seeking out others who Reardon assaulted.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans is bowing under pressure and will be adding the names of 7 religious order priests who worked and abused in New Orleans to their list of accused priests. This is a long overdue move that speaks to need for intervention from secular law enforcement to get to the bottom of what has really gone on in New Orleans.

A Catholic diocese in Massachusetts is getting a new bishop. We hope that its new prelate will make the protection of children and the vulnerable his highest priority and we suggest immediate steps he can take when he is formally installed as bishop.

A bankruptcy judge in New Mexico has ruled that Catholic officials can be subject to lawsuits claiming the Archdiocese of Santa Fe fraudulently transferred away assets in an attempt to avoid paying money to survivors of clergy sexual abuse. We are grateful for this ruling and hope that other judges around the country who are handling Catholic bankruptcies will allow similar actions.

Yesterday, Pope Francis took time out of his day to meet and pray with Australia’s Cardinal George Pell. We believe this ostensibly simple meeting between two men sends the disturbing message that the highest officials in the Catholic Church still have a lot to learn about the realities of child sexual abuse and survivors.

Thanks to the work of journalists in Toronto, the names of 14 abusers of children have been made public, all of whom are priests who belong to a Catholic teaching order. We call on the Basilian Fathers of Toronto to immediately release their own list of clergy who have been accused of sexually abusing children or the vulnerable and to do outreach across Canada and the United States in each location where these abusers lived or worked, ensuring parents and parishioners are aware of the allegations.